Fantastic Beasts 3 set to begin production…in Brazil!

Fantastic Beasts 3 is officially set to kick off production in spring 2020, and thank goodness! The second installment — The Crimes of Grindelwald — came out around this time last year, and I feel like we should already be seeing trailers for the third. But hey, at least we have something to go off of now.

Speaking of Crimes of Grindelwald, Deadline cites its less-than-stellar performance as the reason production on the next movie had been delayed. Crimes made about $650 million worldwide, which fell $150 million short of the first movie’s total. Franchise fatigue is starting to show.

There are a bunch of big franchises feeling the burn right about now. I’m fearful the Star Wars movies might go through this sooner or later (based on the performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, some think it already is). When franchises start to release too much too fast, people can lose interest. Unless you’re Marvel, then you can do wrong.

And delaying the third Fantastic Beasts movie may diminish interest even further, although if the extra time helps them make an entertaining movie, it may be worth it. Crimes of Grindelwald underperformed at the box office, but it was also panned by critics and audiences alike. This is supposed to be a five-film cycle here. If we’re going all in, the movies might as well be good.

Hopefully the new movie will get things back on track. There’s no subtitle for Fantastic Beasts 3 yet, but it’ll start shooting in just a matter of months in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That marks a pretty big difference from the first two films, which took place in New York City and then Paris. Looks like the magical trek across the world continues!

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h/t Variety